User blog:Aimzgirl/Irish republic
The principal nationalist paramilitary organization in Ireland, the Irish Republican Army, or IRA, was founded in 1919. During much of its existence the organization sponsored varying degrees of warfare and terrorism in its attempts to end British rule in Northern Ireland and later to unite Northern Ireland and the republic of irish into one independent nation. A cease-fire in the late 1990s culminated in the signing of a historic peace accord in 1998 that gave Northern Ireland some powers of self-rule. The IRA did not fully disarm, however, an issue that remained divisive. The history of the English presence in Ireland is a long and contentious one, dating back to the 12th century when the English first arrived. Acts of rebellion against the English occurred frequently, but the English continued to consolidate their power over the island—particularly in the northern province of Ulster—culminating in the merging of Ireland and Great Britain to create the United Kingdom in 1801. Continued acts of rebellion, notably those of the Fenian revolutionary movement among exiled Irish in the United States and England in the 1860s, convinced British Prime Minister William Gladstone of the need for reform, though his Home Rule bills failed to pass through Parliament. In 1912 the Ulster Volunteer Force, consisting of Ulster men loyal to Britain, was formed to resist Home Rule. They were countered by a group called the Irish Volunteers, formed in 1913. The Irish Volunteers organized an uprising that took place on Easter Monday in 1916. The insurrection, sometimes called the Easter Rebellion, consisted of a force of more than 1,700 armed Irish men and women whose intent was to seize Ireland and crush British rule there. Although the rebels succeeded in seizing several key buildings, the uprising was rapidly and violently quelled by the British government, and after five days, the rebels surrendered. More than a dozen of the Irish Volunteers' leaders were executed the following month. The executions generated an increase in nationalist fervor, and toward the end of the year the government granted amnesty to those rebels remaining in custody. Public opposition to the harsh treatment of the volunteers led to victory in the 1918 elections by the nationalist Sinn Fein party, which was headed by one of the survivors of the Easter Rising, Eamon de Valera. De Valera set up a provisional Irish government and an Irish parliament, called the Dáil Éireann. The IRA was established to support the claims of the self-proclaimed state. From 1919 to 1921 during the struggle for independence, the IRA sponsored ambushes and other guerrilla activities, forcing the British to negotiate a political settlement. The result was the division of Ireland into the predominantly Protestant Northern Ireland, consisting of six of the counties of Ulster, and the Irish Free State, consisting of the rest of the island, which was primarily Roman Catholic. The Irish Free State was to be a sovereign state within the British Commonwealth while Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom. Many in Ireland were dissatisfied with this arrangement. The ensuing conflict within the IRA set two factions against each other. One of the IRA's founders, Michael Collins, a signer of the treaty, was assassinated by members of his own army. The IRA found intolerable the British presence, especially that of the military, in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein also wanted the British out of Ireland. Although Sinn Fein was considered to be the political wing of the IRA, most of the party's officials denied that they had any leverage or control over the organization. In 1931 the IRA was declared illegal, and any members caught by officials were to be imprisoned. In 1939 the Dáil Éireann passed legislation allowing internment without trial after the IRA organized a series of bombings in England. Authorities of the Irish Free State arrested five IRA leaders and executed them after a brief trial. In 1948 the Irish Free State withdrew from the British Commonwealth and formed a republic. The IRA then set as its goal the unification of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. During the 1960s resistance grew in Northern Ireland against the continued occupation by the British, and demonstrations were staged. In 1969 disagreement over the use of violence caused the IRA to split into two wings. After 1972 the “official” IRA renounced violence altogether, while the provisional IRA, or Provos, used terrorist activities such as bombings and assassinations, believing this to be the only way to remove the British from Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein at the same time was using local and national political channels and elections to effect the same change. Among the terrorist acts of the Provos in the 1970s was the 1979 assassination of the British naval official and statesman Louis Mountbatten, a member of the British royal family. During the 1980s the Provos staged protests and hunger strikes, including a 1981 hunger strike that resulted in the deaths of 10 protesters. None of these efforts produced satisfactory results. In 1993 there was a breakthrough. Many parties to the conflict signed the Downing Street Declaration. The British and Irish governments and parties in Northern Ireland and the south of the country agreed to talks to end the conflict. In August 1994 the IRA declared a cease-fire. It lasted for nearly 18 months, during which there were no terrorist activities. A bombing in February 1996 in London broke the cease-fire, and planned talks were canceled. The IRA leadership claimed that it could not trust the British government to negotiate in good faith. Sinn Fein, led at the time by Gerry Adams, was barred from negotiations after the cease-fire was broken. In mid-1997 the IRA declared another cessation of violence. Peace talks began in the fall, and members of Sinn Fein were permitted to participate for the first time. On April 10, 1998, the participants in the talks approved the historic Good Friday Agreement, a peace accord that authorized the formation of a new power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. The agreement also called for the IRA to decommission its weapons. The IRA put parts of its arsenal “beyond use” in 2001, 2002, and 2003. The issue of total disarmament remained contentious, however, and strained the government's power-sharing arrangement. In October 2002 the arrangement nearly collapsed after allegations linked Sinn Fein to an IRA spying ring, and the British prime minister temporarily suspended Northern Ireland's government. Category:Blog posts